sca-cooks Re(2): Children (Silly)

[Sue Wensel]

>   Sue Wensel wrote:
>   > Food, especially meat (though I wouldn't trust birds), can taste off
before
>   > they are actually spoiled.  In fact, with some meats such as venison,
people
>   > let it "cure" for a few days before they cook it.
>   
>   Adamantius answered:
>   True. Primarily the reason for this was (and still is) for tenderness.
>   The fact that this also produces a flavor some people enjoy is
>   secondary, although some people did hang their meats for the flavor they
>   discovered it produced. Bear in mind that the test for whether a piece
>   of game is sufficiently hung relies on testing it for
>   softness/tenderness, not on whether it smells bad. Generally it involves
>   the ease with which feathers can be plucked.   
> 
> Indeed.  Adamantius is right, and the "spoiled meat" canard (:-) is an
> enduring myth.
> 
> Meat, when freshly slaughtered, is tender.  Fairly quickly, the muscles
> develop "rigor mortis" (literally "stiffness of death") and the meat is less
> tender.  Both pounding, and aging, can undo that stiffness, aging and
> hanging being the more successful.
> 
> Some of the things our ancestors did with food, we would not consider.  But
> eating rotten meat is not one of them.  (Eating live animals, on the other
> hand...)
> 
> 	Tibor

I never said they ate spoiled meat.  However, without refrigeration, after
only a few days, the meat does not taste as *fresh* as it did.  Likewise
vegetables.  Now, either they accepted the taste or they covered it.


Derdriu
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